When I was first told that I was going to America, I was very scared. I was scared to leave behind my friends and my family, but I knew America held opportunities and possibilities that I could not find in Kenya. My name is Peter, and I am a Lost Boy.
When I was a young boy till about 6 months ago, I used to live in a refugee camp because northerners from my country, Sudan, attacked my tribe, the Dinka tribe. They demolished all of my families’ land and they killed our people. But, for a while, I thought my luck had changed. In the refugee camp, I took a test that would decide my future! When the results came back, I was overjoyed! I was going on a real plane! To America!
When we arrived in America, we were very happy but shocked with the things around us. There were more cars than I could count and the houses were tall, big and grand. We were so afraid that it would fall on us at any time! The one agonizing thing in Houston was that the people found it hard to understand us though we were speaking in English. I was living with my friends and one of them was a very ethical man named Santino. Together, we supported each other through the first 5 months in Houston, Texas, and that had made life there bearable. We knew we had to work hard in order to succeed. Our plan was to buy a house that we would both move into, just the two of us, separate from the rest of our friends. But, as luck would have it, I could not get into a school in Houston. Worst still, I was not working in a very good job. By now, I was very disappointed with my life in America. I had wanted to go to school and make something out of my life. I needed to ease the troubles that I was facing so I decided to look for neighboring cities to start afresh. I finally came to the conclusion that my new life would be based in Kansas City. There, I wanted everything that I did not have in Houston, like a girlfriend, my own house, money to send back to my home in Africa, and, most of all, a real education. I made it a quest within myself to achieve my goal.
Settling in Kansas was not as hard as in Houston. I managed to get my birth certificate and go into a high school. With that my confidence grew and my determination to succeed was even stronger. I met many new people and encountered many new opportunities. In school, I even tried out for the basket ball team and got involved in the church. In the end, I managed to get a girlfriend, good grades, and I graduated.
---- The alliance for the Lost Boys in America
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